Family Afar
by concretya
Summary: Remus' mom, Remus' dad, their son, and letters. Pre-Hogwarts. Love, but an unusual kind.
1. Part 1

How Remus made his way to Hogwarts, how he came to know about the Wizarding world, how he learned to love reading, and how he knew what love was.  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine.  
  
===  
  
"I'm not tired. It's not like I did anything today."  
  
"Well, read some more. What book are you on now?"  
  
"The fifth one." Indeed, the small voice from the top bunk sounded bored, not tired.  
  
Adele smiled. "Didn't you say that one sounded the best?"  
  
"My favorite character died in the last one." Her son peered over the edge of the bunk. Adele, sitting on the lower bed and fiddling with the stacks of books and piles of papers, took in his somber expression. "Can you pass me the... uh... third one? I'll just reread it."  
  
The brown-haired woman nodded and passed the paperback volume up to Remus. "I'll be in the other room... writing for a while. Call me if you need me, love."  
  
"Mkay." The tousled head vanished again, the bed creaking as he situated himself.  
  
Adele Lupin quietly walked past the partition into the well-lit family room. Some family, just the two of them. Well... three. She smiled dreamily as she ran fingers over the cold glass of the panoramic window. Dan had transfigured is long ago, telling her and baby Remus that their family included the forest and fields around them...  
  
And then he had said, years later, in a pained voice, that it would let his family look for him. And watch the moon.  
  
The large brown owl sitting on the table hooted softly. He was edging closer and closer to a plate of food left there, but Adele wandered over and cautiously stroked him. "Dan wants you to be good, Trebizond," she warned him. "I'll be sending a letter in just a few minutes. Just do what Dan told you to while I write."  
  
Adele sat down facing the wall, back to the large window. She fingered a roll of parchment before reaching for Muggle paper and a fountain pen.  
  
"Adaliae," the letters on the parchment ran. To Adalia. In the summer when they had first met, she hadn't known Dan was a wizard. She hadn't known wizards- and magical creatures- even existed. Well, that was certainly changed now, but the self-conscious boy had told her he went to a boarding school in Scotland. Where his favorite subject was Latin. And, surprisingly flirtatious, he had tried to prove this by pronouncing her "Adalia" and declining her name.  
  
"My dear Adele," the missive continued. "I know I told you I was returning to you and Remus, but things have changed in the past few days."Adele's stomach plummeted, before quieting again as she read. "As a matter of fact, there's some hope we haven't seen before.  
  
"But first... I miss you. Bloody hell, Addy, I miss you." Adele, curled up in her house with her werewolf son, a Muggle thousands of miles away from her wizard husband, grinned. I miss you too. "I got quite a few odd looks earlier in a wizard tavern when I requested that they play that song you used to like. 'Seafoam Sky.' The jukebox actually told me that I was a hopeless romantic, and I couldn't really argue with bewitched machinery."  
  
A few weeks before he had proposed to her, Dan had taken Adele dancing at a Muggle club. By then she knew about his magic; but this foray into her world wasn't a first. This time, however, he had slipped a small glass bauble into her hands as her favorite song finished. "It'll play the song for you, 'Dalia," he murmured, "when you hold it up to your ear."  
  
And then he had made some of lullabies for a toddling Remus. She didn't know where they were now. Lost in the clutter somewhere. A few months after the fateful full moon, Remus, still a sweet child, had asked his daddy to record some stories onto the sound-globes.  
  
She hadn't seen those in years, either. Her son probably still had them somewhere... at least he had a way to hear his father's voice, despite the man's absence. Dan truly did love their son...  
  
Adele turned to her own paper. "I miss you too, Danny." She scribbled without precursor. Tugging a blanket that lay in a heap on the floor, she sunk back into her husband's letters.  
  
He rambled on for quite a while in his sweet way. Telling stories about his school, Hogwarts. Telling stories that she had originally told to him about her muggle school. Neither of which their son could experience. It wasn't fair. Adele could clearly remember how he was before that night, such a happy child, creative at even a young age. And now he would be thwarted in whatever future he strove for. And he knew it. He shouldn't know it, he was too young, but he did know. And he was still sweet and thoughtful.  
  
She could remember vividly when Dan had made a decision; he wanted desperately to be part of Remus' family, but part of him needed to escape their little house. And to look for a cure, though chances of finding one were slim.  
  
"Once in Hogwarts, I had Potions with the Hufflepuffs, and the teacher asked about some cure for- aw hell, I forget what it was for, but anyway- he asked where we would go to find it, and no one raised their hands. And the Hufflepuffs looked expectantly at us, like we should know because we were Ravenclaws, and... well, Addy, I guess I am gonna have to know now. I want to love my son, Ad, and I can do it from a distance, trying to help him. Just... teach him that I'm a part of the family."  
  
Remus' mother stared at the next part of the letter. "Adali- I'm sure I told you 'bout Professor Dippet, the head of Hogwarts- and you met him once, too, soon after Remus was born. Well, he's not there anymore. I was contacted by Professor Dumbledore, formerly a teacher at HogW.'s, and he's really influential. And he's head now. And he hinted that he might want to talk to me- us- about Remus.  
  
"Don't get Rem's hopes up. But... maybe you can tell him some of the Hogwarts stories I told you? And send them with love from his dad."  
  
===  
  
To Be Continued. It'll get more Remus-centric soon. 


	2. Part 2

Disclaimer: Not mine.  
  
===  
  
The letter tied firmly to Trebizond was romantic and nostalgic. Sitting by the fireplace the night before, Adele had felt a rush of enthusiasm, spouting wistful stories of her younger self preparing for secondary school. Daniel had often mentioned that his parents- both wizards- took it for granted that he would go to Hogwarts. But their son was a different case.  
  
He was pre-teen. She usually only harbored memories of her full adolescence, not her naïve self. And he wouldn't really talk to her. He read, and listened to music, and fiddled around outside. He opened up slightly for her, but seemed to keep his sorrows to himself. He had a lot... more than he should. No, Remus was not naïve by any means...  
  
But when he did reach his teen years, it would be even harder on him. And he deserved to spend them learning. She had watched him grow up this far, and she would see that he got to develop the rest of the way.  
  
To her husband, she merely wrote "I hope it succeeds. He deserves a chance."  
  
Now, with mild sunlight drifting through the window, she could see Remus in the yard. He appeared to be sitting in a tree, curled between the trunk and a branch several feet up. But his back was turned on the house his mother watched from.  
  
Resolutely, Adele rummaged in a basket of trinkets on the table, searching for a familiar bundle of parchment rolls.  
  
"Hallo, mum." Remus said lightly as she climbed down the almost ladder-like steps from the house, across the yard dust. He held a book- front cover folded completely back, Adele noted with slight amusement- and a worn knapsack hung from a branch right above him. But he wasn't reading.  
  
"Hey, Remmie." Mrs. Lupin mentally berated herself. This was going to seem abrupt. "...be careful perched up there." Ouch. She desperately wanted to tease her son- you aren't a bird, you're a mammal, you don't have feathers- and make him laugh. But bringing what type of animal he was would be cruelty.  
  
The boy nodded almost imperceptibly. "Need me for anything?"  
  
"N..no." She paused awkwardly. "You've been restless lately. Spring fever?"  
  
She was rewarded with a smile. Her young son wrinkled his nose, smelling the air. "It's nice out."  
  
Adele warily approached the transition of topics. All the same, she was excited. It would be hard for Remus, learning about his future world from someone who had barely experienced it; but there was simple, pure joy in telling your son stories about your own childhood. "Your dad is always active in the spring. Bouncing on about Quidditch."  
  
"Yeah. His favorite sport. Wizarding game. Flying." Remus said the last word thoughtfully.  
  
"Is that all I told you about it? Well, your da wasn't much good, I don't think he ever made the school team... but he loved watching it. And fooling around with his broom in the spring."  
  
Remus' face lit up. "What was flying like? Did he have a good.... Broom? When did he practice if he wasn't on the team?"  
  
Yes, Adele decided, her son definitely liked snippets of information about his parents. Well, he would. Seemed to be eternally interested in other worlds and cultures. If not for his... other problem... he would probably have no trouble balancing and shuttling between the Wizard and normal world.  
  
"...I don't know, dear. *I've* never flown before.... But your dad certainly bragged about his broom. He admitted it didn't have the best steering, but it was fast and light, he said. He always wanted to talk about it. On our first meeting he almost let slip a comment about how fast I liked flying. It..." She paused. Remus needn't know how much she missed Dan right now, how wistful she was. "Maybe some day he'll teach you. To fly. He does want to, you know."  
  
The boy blinked. "I... uh... I'm fine with my feet on the ground," he said in an extremely small voice. "Unless... does dad expec- want me to be good at. Quidditch?"  
  
"Darling... your father wants you to be happy."  
  
"I know."  
  
===  
  
Remus was lying idly in bed that night, unable to go to sleep, thinking of nothing and everything. His books just didn't have enough... well, background. Depth. And he couldn't help imagining what flying would feel like whenever he closed his eyes..... racing along, cape trailing, in the night sky with a lovely full... ARGH. He bit back a sudden, instinctive whimper of pain, even as his mind told him it was tired of him constantly upsetting himself.  
  
"You asleep?" his mom called from the other room, and he muttered a "no..." She appeared a second later, with that evening-air about her. He knew she wrote to his dad almost every evening... maybe that had something to do with it. It *did* somehow hint at both of his parents.... Whatever it was that made her so calm and peaceful in the evenings, it was comforting to him, too. "Thinking?"  
  
"Kinda." He closed his eyes again and nestled into the pillow before saying rather quickly, "about flying. D'you know more about Quidditch?"  
  
Adele replied with a smile. "A fair bit. And Dan probably has some of his old Quidditch books lying around... I can look for them later."  
  
"Okay." Remus appeared sleepy, but his voice was loud.  
  
"I do know that there are seven players per team and four... pretty sure it's four, two the same... balls. Yeah, your dad wanted to be a Keeper, stopped the other team's Chasers from scoring with the main ball, a red leather one."  
  
"Scoring?"  
  
"Dad once saw some Muggle bubble wands in a toy store and exclaimed that they were like tiny goal-posts. Good thing he had told me about Wizardry by then. And good thing no one else was around."  
  
She could've sworn her son snorted softly. "Toy store?"  
  
"Yup. Actually, it was... when we were expecting you."  
  
"Ah." Remus pulled the blankets closer, then snaked a hand out to dangle over the edge of the bunk. It was rather pointless, really, having a bunk bed for only one kid; but he had a habit of sleeping on the top bunk, and the bottom worked fine as a shelf for junk. "So that's one ball.... Are all the other players Chasers?"  
  
"Hardly. There are only three Chasers, then two Beaters, who fend off Bludgers, hard balls that rocket around in the air, and a Seeker, who catches the golden ball and ends the game."  
  
Remus shifted again. He was restless tonight.  
  
"And that's basically it, except that they're all doing this in the air. I also think Dad liked bragging about how dangerous it was, what with falling and the Bludgers and all the ways of fouling..." Adele half-smiled at Remus as he abruptly sat up and leaned against the wall instead. "Games usually last a while, too. You should ask your father, he'll tell you more than you want to know."  
  
"...can I write a letter to him some time for you to send with Trebizond?"  
  
Wha...? Of course he could, why was he asking? Adele bit her lip. Remus seemed to know that Dan loved him, but they weren't very close... "Of course. And I can look for those books right now, if you want."  
  
He nodded happily, sliding neatly off the bunk when she wandered over to one of the closets. Remus padded a few feet into the kitchen and over to the ceramic taps to get a drink of water; he jumped back in bed- he *never* bothered with a ladder, no sane boy his age would- just as his mum reappeared with an old suitcase.  
  
"Here," Adele said cheerily. "We stored some of his old books in here. Not all of them, of course, he took some with him and the rest are all over the place, but there's bound to be some interesting ones." She lifted it onto the foot of the upper bunk, briefly resting her hand on his before wishing "'Night!" and slowly heading for the family room.  
  
When she came to turn off the light several moody hours later, a bubble of happiness rose at the sight of her son. His fingers were in a book, marking his place, but it was slipping closed; Remus himself was already deep in dreams.  
  
The Quidditch book was untouched in the suitcase. The youngest Lupin had seized his father's old Defense Against the Dark Arts book  
  
===  
  
Author's Note: There. More Remus-ish. But no letters. Next time will be Remus *and* Adele-Dan letters. I hope I'm not making Dan too Gryffindor- ish. He just seems to me like an exceptionally outgoing Ravenclaw. So there, Mini-Remmie got to learn about Quidditch.  
  
Danke to my reviewer, Hot Cocoa. Dan's basically looking for anything that will help. And a large part is avoiding home. Because... well, he's not scared *of* Remus, but he's scared that he will *become* scared of Remus if he lives there, and he doesn't want to become scared of his son. 


End file.
